The invention concerns a process for reading magnetically recorded signals from a photographic film provided with a transparent thin magnetic layer, and a device for carrying out this process.
A process of the kind mentioned for reading magnetically recorded signals is derived, for example, from the U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,139. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,419 discloses photographic films which have a very thin, transparent, surface-covering magnetic layer as an additional layer. On this magnetic layer the various signals can be recorded, including those recorded in the camera from the exposure process, which are helpful for the processing of the developed film. Normal devices for the detection of magnetic signals can be used for reading these magnetic signals.
It has been demonstrated, however, that the requirement for high transparency of the unexposed film after developing allows only for a magnetic layer with very little magnetic material. For this reason, the signals recorded with magnetic writing heads can deposit only extraordinarily weak magnetic fields and accordingly can induce only very small currents in the coils of movable magnetic heads opposite the magnetic layer. Devices normally used for reading magnetic impulses are designed for non-transparent magnetic layers and thus for those with much magnetic material which also deliver correspondingly strong signals. Signals readable from transparent magnetic layers may be weaker by a factor of at least 200 times than those from normal layers for recording sound or computer data.